IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ereveh/v26y2022i2p185-207..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The wild card: colonial paper money in French North America, 1685 to 1719
[Economic Structure and Agricultural Productivity in Europe, 1300–1800]

Author

Listed:
  • Bryan P Cutsinger
  • Vincent Geloso
  • Mathieu Bédard

Abstract

We use the first French experiment with playing card money in its colony of Quebec between 1685 and 1719 to illustrate the link between legal tender restrictions and the price level. Initially, the quantity of playing card money and the government’s poor fiscal condition appears to have had little effect on prices. After 1705, however, the playing card money became inflationary. We argue that this was caused by the government’s increased enforcement of the legal tender laws and the adoption of a redemption plan intended to remove the notes from circulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Bryan P Cutsinger & Vincent Geloso & Mathieu Bédard, 2022. "The wild card: colonial paper money in French North America, 1685 to 1719 [Economic Structure and Agricultural Productivity in Europe, 1300–1800]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(2), pages 185-207.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:26:y:2022:i:2:p:185-207.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/heab014
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farley Grubb, 2017. "Colonial Virginia's paper money regime, 1755–74: A forensic accounting reconstruction of the data," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 96-112, April.
    2. Redish, Angela, 1984. "Why Was Specie Scarce in Colonial Economies? An Analysis of the Canadian Currency, 1796–1830," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 713-728, September.
    3. Wallace, Neil, 1981. "A Modigliani-Miller Theorem for Open-Market Operations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 267-274, June.
    4. Vincent Geloso, 2019. "A price index for Canada, 1688 to 1850," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(2), pages 526-560, May.
    5. Rolnick, Arthur J & Weber, Warren E, 1986. "Gresham's Law or Gresham's Fallacy?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(1), pages 185-199, February.
    6. Abad, Leticia Arroyo & van Zanden, Jan Luiten, 2016. "Growth under Extractive Institutions? Latin American Per Capita GDP in Colonial Times," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(4), pages 1182-1215, December.
    7. Officer, Lawrence H., 2005. "The quantity theory in New England, 1703-1749: new data to analyze an old question," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 101-121, January.
    8. Calomiris, Charles W., 1988. "Institutional Failure, Monetary Scarcity, and the Depreciation of the Continental," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 47-68, March.
    9. Peter L. Rousseau, 2007. "Backing, the Quantity Theory, and the Transition to the US Dollar, 1723–1850," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 266-270, May.
    10. McCallum, Bennett T, 1992. "Money and Prices in Colonial America: A New Test of Competing Theories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 143-161, February.
    11. Michener, Ron, 2015. "Redemption theories and the value of American colonial paper money," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 315-335, December.
    12. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 1980. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521233293.
    13. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2006. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521027922.
    14. Michener, Ronald, 2019. "A re-examination of the empirical evidence concerning colonial Virginia's paper money, 1755-1774: a comment on Grubb," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 389-399, December.
    15. Farley Grubb, 2003. "Creating the U.S. Dollar Currency Union, 1748–1811: A Quest for Monetary Stability or a Usurpation of State Sovereignty for Personal Gain?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1778-1798, December.
    16. Michener, Ron, 1988. "Backing Theories and the Currencies of Eighteenth-Century America: A Comment," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(03), pages 682-692, September.
    17. Wicker, Elmus, 1985. "Colonial Monetary Standards Contrasted: Evidence from the Seven Years' War," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(4), pages 869-884, December.
    18. Gary Pecquet & Clifford Thies, 2010. "Money in occupied New Orleans, 1862–1868: A test of Selgin’s “salvaging” of Gresham’s Law," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(2), pages 111-126, June.
    19. Allen, Robert C., 2001. "The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 411-447, October.
    20. Rowlands, Guy, 2012. "The Financial Decline of a Great Power: War, Influence, and Money in Louis XIV's France," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199585076.
    21. Ronald W. Michener, 2019. "Re-examination of the Empirical Evidence Concerning Colonial New Jersey's Paper Money, 1709–1775: A Comment on Farley Grubb," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 16(2), pages 180–217-1, September.
    22. Ronald W. Michener & Robert E. Wright, 2005. "State "Currencies" and the Transition to the U.S. Dollar: Clarifying Some Confusions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 682-703, June.
    23. Bruce D. Smith, 1985. "American Colonial Monetary Regimes: The Failure of the Quantity Theory and Some Evidence in Favour of an Alternative View," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 18(3), pages 531-565, August.
    24. Frank Whitson Fetter, 1932. "Some Neglected Aspects of Gresham's Law," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 46(3), pages 480-495.
    25. Greenfield, Robin L & Rockoff, Hugh, 1995. "Gresham's Law in Nineteenth-Century America," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(4), pages 1086-1098, November.
    26. Selgin, George, 1996. "Salvaging Gresham's Law: The Good, the Bad, and the Illegal," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(4), pages 637-649, November.
    27. Earl J. Hamilton, 1936. "Prices and Wages at Paris under John Law's System," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 51(1), pages 42-70.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cutsinger, Bryan P. & Rouanet, Louis & Ingber, Joshua S., 2023. "Assignats or death: The politics and dynamics of hyperinflation in revolutionary France," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Farley Grubb, 2016. "Is Paper Money Just Paper Money? Experimentation and Variation in the Paper Monies Issued by the American Colonies from 1690 to 1775," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, volume 32, pages 147-224, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Grubb, Farley, 2004. "The circulating medium of exchange in colonial Pennsylvania, 1729-1775: new estimates of monetary composition, performance, and economic growth," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 329-360, October.
    3. Ronald W. Michener & Robert E. Wright, 2006. "Miscounting Money of Colonial America," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(1), pages 4-44, January.
    4. Farley Grubb, 2006. "Theory, Evidence, and Belief—The Colonial Money Puzzle Revisited: Reply to Michener and Wright," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(1), pages 45-72, January.
    5. Cutsinger, Bryan P. & Rouanet, Louis & Ingber, Joshua S., 2023. "Assignats or death: The politics and dynamics of hyperinflation in revolutionary France," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    6. Farley Grubb, 2014. "A New Approach to Explaining the Value of Colonial Paper Money: Evidence from New Jersey, 1709-1775," Working Papers 14-08, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    7. Farley Grubb, 2003. "Two Theories of Money Reconciled: The Colonial Puzzle Revisited with New Evidence," Working Papers 03-03, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    8. Farley Grubb, 2012. "Chronic Specie Scarcity and Efficient Barter: The Problem of Maintaining an Outside Money Supply in British Colonial America ," Working Papers 12-08, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    9. Farley Grubb, 2014. "A New Approach to Solving the Colonial Monetary Puzzle: Evidence from New Jersey, 1709-1775," NBER Working Papers 19903, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Gary Pecquet & Clifford Thies, 2010. "Money in occupied New Orleans, 1862–1868: A test of Selgin’s “salvaging” of Gresham’s Law," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(2), pages 111-126, June.
    11. Rousseau, Peter L. & Stroup, Caleb, 2011. "Monetization and growth in colonial New England, 1703–1749," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 600-613.
    12. Farley Grubb, 2012. "Is Paper Money just Paper Money/ Experimentation and Local Variation in the Fiat Paper Monies Issued by the Colonial Government of British North America, 1690-1775: Part I," Working Papers 12-07, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    13. Peter L. Rousseau, 2010. "Monetary Policy and the Dollar," NBER Chapters, in: Founding Choices: American Economic Policy in the 1790s, pages 121-149, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Michael Sproul, 1998. "The Quantity Theory versus the Real Bills Doctrine in Colonial America," UCLA Economics Working Papers 775B, UCLA Department of Economics.
    15. Ronald W. Michener, 2019. "Re-examination of the Empirical Evidence Concerning Colonial New Jersey's Paper Money, 1709–1775: A Comment on Farley Grubb," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 16(2), pages 180–217-1, September.
    16. Farley Grubb, 2013. "Colonial New Jersey's Paper Money Regime, 1709-1775: A Forensic Accounting Reconstruction of the Data," NBER Working Papers 19710, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Farley Grubb, 2006. "Benjamin Franklin and Colonial Money: A Reply to Michener and Wright—Yet Again," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(3), pages 484-510, September.
    18. Farley Grubb, 2017. "The Paper Money of Colonial North Carolina, 1712-1774," Working Papers 17-01, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    19. Vincent Geloso & Mathieu Bédard, 2018. "Was Economic Growth Likely in Lower Canada?," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 33(Fall 2018), pages 1-23.
    20. Ronald W. Michener & Robert E. Wright, 2006. "Farley Grubb’s Noisy Evasions on Colonial Money: A Rejoinder," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(2), pages 251-274, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:26:y:2022:i:2:p:185-207.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/ereh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.